What do you like best?

I have been an early user of Flash when it was Macromedia and it was the new big thing for the web. Forget teh animated GIFs, no javascript would move anything ont he screen, Flash would offer you the ability to make a dynamic website, where things could move. Of course it was a sort of a static image on the page where something basically happened inside of it. Slowly HTML and Flash started to interact with the evolution of Actionscript. That was Macromedia Flash. Macromedia has been a great competitor for Adobe, the only one who could stay after the giant of graphic software and Adobe simply bought it when it could. Some Macromedia software has been simply discontinued after the buisiness acquisition, Flash survived. Well, sort of. Actionscript 3 (complex) was introduced by Adobe at the beginning parallel to Actionscript 2 (programming friendly), then with the latest version Actionscript 3 simply substitutes Acrrtionscript 2. That changed everything. Macromedia Flash was for graphic dynamic element on a website (now achieved with Javascript), the new Adobe Flash is for games and way more complex software architectures (such as App). Now, getting back to the topic, what do I like best? I like Flash, its history, the revolution hat it used to be. But I do believe that Adobe Flash looks like Macromedia Flash but it is a different kind of softwarre with different concept and use.

Anyway, I use to like Actionscript 2 and how with a simple mouse event and command you were able toake something happen.

What do you dislike?

In the era of social media and smartphone/tables App Flash is nolonger impremented in iOS and Android. So, I don't like thata. Website based on Flash or built also with Flash elements are no longer properly displayed on these devices, Flash simply doesn't run on them. Well, it is not so much about Flash, what I don't like is the overall situation. The development of the web has always taken care of backwards compatibility, up to now where a perfectly functioning website could get not compatible anylonger. The internet is changing, deeply, conceptually, and Flash was totally left behind.

In general, getting back to the software, I don't like the fact that Actionscript 3 totally ignore Actionscript 2. I understand AS 3 is more powerfull but they could keep the logic of AS 2 as well, so that it could be both powerful and friendly.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Yes, I don't know if Flash is headdin the right direction. It has lost tha magiority of users of course, it is not anymore a software for anyone. Flash is not supported on the browser of today devices, I would consider twice before using Flash and spend time on developing projects and architecture with it, i believe its destiny is to disappear or becoming again something else.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Graphically dynamic websites in the past, now games and App programming.

What do you like best?

*Compiling SWF's means that Flash can be shared and re-hosted as a single file. This has been extremely important for Flash Games.

*Animation in Flash is a beautiful thing when done properly and from Marketing perspective Flash became visible to Google;s and other Search crawlers.

What do you dislike?

* Poor performance on windows and incredible worse on Mac and Linux because flash files often pull in images and movies after they load, leading many of them to display a loading animation after the rest of the page is displayed (for an example, try the different tabs on Some Outdated Self Ticketing Counter.

* Vulnerable with countless security issues.

* Flash Slows things down because each second spent watching a loading animation is a second they’re not looking at your content.

* Mobile Users Ignored because it isn’t available for devices from two of the biggest handset makers Blackberry and Apple.

* Accessibility is more than a buzzword for e.g: there are ways to make Flash content accessible, but only within the Flash file itself. Screen readers, used by many visually impaired users, don’t have access to the text in your Flash content. Can you afford to exclude this part of your audience?

* Too much Flash can hurt your search engine ranking and accessibility but thanks to HTML5.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Recommended For Some New Developers, Try Flash IDE if nothing else works for you because for Authoring, Flash has a is huge benefit. It has huge under base and as such an equally large community.

Dont Expect anything for Mobile Browser and support for mobile is also discontinued.

It's still dominating browser market and For that reason Hardware Accelerated 3D, Flash has big audience penetration and compiling SWF's means that Flash can be shared and re-hosted as a single file. This has been extremely important for Flash Games.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Vulnerabilities in Flash is so common that it helped us learn and dive deep in finding vulnerabilities. Its is not great product and in fact most vulnerable. There are countless security problems for e.g on Windows or Linux , it allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors. :-()()()() There are countless exploits so this is not even one example.

What do you like best?

Development time is about half to one quarter of that using native (HTML/JS) solutions because of a stronger language via Actionscript3 (arguably some way beyond JavaScript) and full featured content delivery capabilities out-of-the-box (without the need to use 3rd party libraries for even common tasks as occurs often with HTML5).

Flash allows development for 3 of the 4 most common targets (desktop-web, desktop-app, mobile-app)., Unfortunately the one not supported is becoming a biggie - mobile-web - and leading to the demise of Flash.

As well as rich media, also supports complex web applications via the Flex framework.

A Javascript based player (versions of this are in beta from a number of sources, (notably Mozilla Shumway' and OpenFL) may return some of the ubiquity back to Flash given that development time is far less than typical HTML/JavaScript projects.

What do you dislike?

Not well supported for mobile web.

Flash is being superseded by HTML5/JS in one of its two last two big areas (rich web advertising), and is now only really used for online games and some mobile apps.

Senior Flash/Flex developers are now rare (we spent 6 months trying to get one in January 2015, and have essentially given up).

Recommendations to others considering the product

HTML/Javascript, although development time is much higher (about the same for simple rich media, quickly going up to x2 as long for larger projects), and requires a more varied design team

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I am a senior Flash/Flex web developer, having worked with Flash since the late 1990s, and having published 20 books on the subject.

Flash is still the fastest way to create compelling rich media and Web applications, but lack of support for mobile-web has killed it for most new projects except mobile apps (via Adobe Air).

Having said that, Flash based authoring that is then exported to a HTML target (that runs as a HTML5 canvas object) is still a viable option for high end interactive web content such as social gaming clients.

I currently still use Flash/Flex in my day-day work, but it is finally beginning to ramp down and am moving over to HTML5/JS solutions

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